Pekin Duck Club!

[Amiga]

Oh right! Mine have grit mixed into their food already but it's optional, no need to run out buying 7lbs. Of it worrying your ducks won't make it without grit (hahaha well I guess EVERYONE needs grit to make it through life

I'm killing myself here with these puns)

Hmmm, I have read that there is a risk of impaction if they don't get grit - - - and I agree, no need to buy 7 pounds of it. If you don't use poisons and fertilizers on your lawn, you can dig up a little soil with some grass and put it in a bowl for the ducklings to play with - they will ingest some grit from that. Or a teaspoon of clean play sand or builders sand, I am told.

 

[cluckylady812]

To minimize the mess , and still provide 24 hour access to food and water, I bought a rubber hot water heater tray at home depot. The tray catches 75%of the spills and splashes, and cuts down on the bedding catastrophes lol. I spot clean the whole pen daily, dump the tray, and muck out down to the floor once or twice a week. I always provide food

and water, one for the ducks comfort and health, two... What if Im delayed getting to them in the morning? Emergency etc.
They have access to chick grit, and outdoors they usually drill to china, so i assume they supplement with grit from the yard as well lol. Ducks are the most upkeep imo, but the humor and beauty make them worth it!

 

[LovemyPekin]

Help i hatched pekin ducks eggs my 1 baby has splayed legs he is only a day old how do i fix this safely

 

[Amiga]

Hi,

Please look at the section on splayed legs here https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

And I would start giving B Vitamin supplements, either B Complex vitamins or Brewer's yeast - here is my writeup on that


I would go with brewer's yeast. Forgive me for using capital letters, but for anyone else who may casually look over this thread, NOT baking yeast, NOT winemaking yeast. Brewer's yeast is a nutritional supplement and it provides niacin and a few other vitamins.

Generally, folks who supplement with brewer’s yeast use a tablespoon per cup of food.

Ducklings need about three times the niacin chicks do. And some ducklings get leg problems or seizures if they don't have enough niacin.

Another approach is to use B Complex capsules, and use the B3 - niacin - levels as a guide. Again, 150 mg B3 per gallon of drinking water.


Keep the little one on the supplements for about 8 weeks.

Sometimes it only takes a few days to see improvement.

 

[barbara134]

I read online that you can tell the sex of you duckling by the color of it beak that a light peach is female and a bright orange is male does anyone know if this is true?

 

[AxolotlLove]

I read online that you can tell the sex of you duckling by the color of it beak that a light peach is female and a bright orange is male does anyone know if this is true?

Well, not all duck breeds have orange bills, and my pekin female has the exact same orange bill as my males so this isn't really accurate.
My female (Carly)

A male (Farkle)

The sexing by bill color is true in khakis but not pekins. Pekins can also have white bills, instead if orange, but the white bill can happen with male or female

 

[tracyjg]

Well I will tell you these. If your husband thinks ducks will not make a big mess with water and food and will not replace bedding he has a problem. I have the same argument with mine. He needs to come with grips with how waterfowl our. They our not going to mind when it comes to food and water at any age. They follow there own instincts. You don't want to hold back water at any age. Food can be put out doing the day hours. I have to containers not big I put duck feed in one and chicken feed in the other . I usually feed them once a day maybe twice along with treats. Mine eat cucumber peppers zucchini little yellow squash green squash tomatos sometimes celery when my food processor is working corn cooked green beans no salt on corn peas green beans oatmeal barley grits chick grit or poultry grit depending on age rolled oats whole corn. I buy mine at smiths Walmart when I buy food for my family.

 

[tracyjg]

You can try towels and launder them often. Hard plastic plastic on walls piece of wood. You will have to change towels every few hrs.

 

[tracyjg]

You can get a probiotic water protector life lytes to put in water at your local feed store

 

[tracyjg]